Apple leads lobbying efforts in Washington amid chip shortage driven by AI demand

Apple is making a bold play in Washington, lobbying the Trump administration for permission to buy memory chips from ChangXin Memory Technologies, a Chinese manufacturer that the Pentagon blacklisted just weeks ago. The move underscores how severely the AI boom has distorted the global semiconductor supply chain, forcing even the world’s most valuable company to go hat in hand to regulators. CXMT was added to the Pentagon’s Section 1260H list of Chinese military-linked companies on June 8, 2026. That designation hasn’t yet banned private commercial sales, but it puts the company squarely in Washington’s crosshairs. Apple is now engaging directly with the Commerce Department and Treasury officials, seeking assurances that CXMT won’t face stricter regulations that would cut off a potential lifeline for its supply chain. The price problem Around June 25, the company rolled out significant price increases across Macs and iPads, including a $100 bump on the MacBook Neo. CEO Tim Cook described the memory price increases as “unsustainable” during a mid-June discussion with the Wall Street Journal. The root cause isn’t a manufacturing failure or a natural disaster. It’s demand reallocation...